


Saviors in a Half Shell

by DrgRcnGrl



Category: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Bay Movies), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TV 2012), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - All Media Types
Genre: 22 Year Old Turtles, AUish, Brotherly Love, Budding relationships, But Leo is also daddy, Cosmetology, Definitely Fluffy, Depression, F/M, Fourth Human Friend, Friendship, Gen, He's such a dad, Hurt/Comfort, I'm having too much fun tagging, Inspirational Splinter, Jump - Freeform, Kinda based off movie turtles, Living in a lonely world, Lots of pizza, Meditation, Not 'Teenage' MNT Anymore, OPE - Freeform, RELATIONSHIP TAG IS PLATONIC I SWEAR, Small Town Girl, Smug Face, Suicide Attempt, Tech Stuff, Therapy-less Therapy, They're Still Growing Up, They're the most attractive honestly, Turtles helping humans, Weight Lifting, You know what I mean, and Thai food, at least not yet, budding friendships, chamomile tea, do not fret she's not going to be with ALL of them, fLUFF CITY, for now, investments, maybe midnight subway would suit better, midnight trains, mostly movie based, not nsfw, relationship, so is leo, tea makes everything better, that would be insane, wink wink
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-24
Updated: 2020-10-19
Packaged: 2021-03-07 23:54:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 11,726
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26626303
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DrgRcnGrl/pseuds/DrgRcnGrl
Summary: You can have everything and still have nothing at all.With the Foot Clan and Shredder behind bars, the four brothers take to the city solving any altercation they can find. Gang violence, human trafficking, the like. One night on their way back to the lair, they come across a situation they never thought they'd find themselves in.How do you talk a woman off the edge?(Previously 'You Saved Me')
Relationships: Donatello (TMNT)/Leonardo (TMNT)/Michelangelo (TMNT)/Raphael (TMNT)/Original Character(s)
Comments: 3
Kudos: 30





	1. Too Close

"All in a night's work, huh, guys?" Leonardo boasted. He would never tire from leaping rooftop to rooftop in that city. The adrenaline rush, the confidence boost- he ached for more.

"So much for the most powerful gang in the city! Looked like they were about to wet themselves," Raphael snickered, leaping one step ahead of his elder. "I'd wet myself if I were up against us, too, as a human."

Longing to blend in was a thing of the past. With all the good they did for the city, the four brothers learned that they preferred to be thankless heroes. April made sure they were barely even a shadow, no echoes of who they were or where they came from. Those that did see them were... Let's just say they would never wish to speak of them. They knew the consequences.

After all, four over six foot tall ninjas? You definitely don't want to be on their bad side.

It was seven years since their first experience topside. Seven years since they finally met the woman that saved them. Seven years silently fighting, growing closer with each mission, each victory.

To be honest, Leo wasn't sure if Mikey was happier with each new personal best or when he got to pick up takeout on the street corner. He treated both instances as the same.

“Scanner’s starting to slow down for the night, should we call it? There’s this Thai food place we could order from, I hear they’re really good!” Donatello said, easily taking up the rear of his brothers. He barely focused on the obstacles in front of him, instead looking directly into the screen of his glasses.

He swore he wouldn’t actually go blind using them all the time.

“Go ahead, then, what are you waiting for-?” Leonardo began to shout.

He stopped.

One by one, his brothers ran into his shell at full force, almost knocking him to his knees. “Watch it!” he whisper-yelled, shaking his head.

“Leo, what’s with the-”

“Shh!” He gestured to the nearest edge of the rooftop.

Like most rooftops in New York City, it wasn’t completely flat. It had air conditioning units, ventilation systems, some even boasted botanical gardens if they residents were daring enough. This one was rather plain, with only a small door leading to a stairway down, a few patio chairs, and a two foot deep lipped edge. Two feet of presumably concrete was all that stood between the rooftop and the city beneath.

No, this didn’t seem right. What was this girl doing standing on that ledge?

“Do you think she’s meditating? Should we leave her alone?” Michelangelo whispered to his brothers.

Donnie gave him a firm nudge. “No, people don’t just- just meditate on the edge of a high platform like this.”

“Is she looking at the stars?”

“No, she’s looking down, Mikey. Stupid.”

Leonardo felt his breath hitch as he realized what they were about to witness.

Crime fighting was one thing. It was becoming almost second nature to the mutant turtle family. As easy as breathing, essentially.

“Uh, Miss? Are you okay?” Leonardo called out after a brief moment of silence between his brothers.

“You guys should leave. You shouldn’t be up here.” Something about her voice didn’t sit right with Leo.

He quickly ushered his brothers into the shadow of the rooftop doorway. Even if she turned around, she wouldn’t see them. She couldn’t see them.

“Are you okay? You’re awful close to that ledge,” Leonardo said, choosing his words as carefully as he could.

“You should leave,” she repeated. The woman didn’t move, still looking towards the ground. It was such a long way down.

What on Earth was she thinking?

“What’s your name?” he asked, holding up a quick hand to his brothers. He didn’t want anything said that might set her off. She was so close to that ledge. One step and…

“My name?” the woman said, speaking quieter now. “Why would you care what my name is? What’s yours?”

“My name is Leonardo. I’d like to know your name.”

None of his training prepared him for something like this. What could possibly be on her mind for her to be this close to falling? All on her own accord.

The woman leaned back on her heels, taking in a deep breath. “Elizabeth.”

“Elizabeth? That’s a lovely name.”

“Thanks,” she said through grinding teeth.

Leonardo took quick breaths in and out. Think, Leo, Think.

He felt his heart jump out of his shell as she shifted her weight back on her toes, leaning more into the thin air. “Wait!” he yelled on impulse.

“You should leave,” Elizabeth said again, shaking her head, her hair shifting back and forth against her neck. “I don’t want company right now.”

“I can’t leave. I swore to myself and my family to protect the citizens of this city. That means you, even if it’s against yourself.” Leonardo felt like he heard the words he said out loud before he heard them in his mind. He hoped to all that was good that he could get this woman out of this situation.

“Leo, we should…” Raphael whispered, though at the look of his elder, he stopped his train of thought. No.

The woman on the edge forced a laugh. “Don’t you have Thai food to get or something?”

“Do you want some?”

“I don’t think I’ll need any, actually.”

That wasn’t the answer Leo had expected. He took a small step forward, on the edge of the shadow and the light from the moon. “What do you want?”

Elizabeth began to shift back on her heels, exhaling. Ten seconds went by, but it felt like an eternity. Leo was ready to jump forward. “What does anybody want? Really?”

This was a type of low Leonardo never thought he would witness. How was it possible that someone would be so close to the edge, quite literally, and just not seem to care one way or the other? How could that be possible?

“You know, I never really thought I’d make it this far,” she said suddenly. “In life, this far… This close. I never thought I’d make it.”

Leo took the smallest of steps forward as he could, light barely reaching his forehead. “What do you mean?”

“Here I am, in the Big Apple, making my way through life. I’m successful, I have a good credit score, I have my own place. Why does it feel like I still have nothing?”

Shit. What was he supposed to say to that?

“Don’t you have family?”

She scoffed. “Hardly. Dad’s dead, mother’s a narcissistic sociopath, and sister is a hotshot accountant in the Midwest. Words I never thought I’d say about her.”

“Friends?”

“Do you know how hard it is to keep friends when you feel like a prisoner inside your own head?”

Ouch.

Leonardo sucked in a breath. “Look, I’m not going to let you do this. If you jump, you lose.”

“What could I possibly have to lose?”

“Don’t you want there to be a chance that it will get better?”

“Wanting that chance has got me this far. I’d say ‘chances’ are pretty slim.”

Leonardo growled, shaking his head. When he opened his mouth to speak, he saw the tip of her shoe begin to slip. “No, wait-!” He had never felt his heart beat so fast in his life. Did he fail?

Before he could think, he felt his body run to the edge of the rooftop faster than he thought he could ever go. Leonardo reached out his arm to grab hers. “Elizabeth!”

He couldn’t fail. Failure wasn’t an option.

Leo had barely blinked when he saw red in his peripheral. As he grabbed one arm, he felt his brother beside him, holding onto the woman’s other arm just as tightly, her legs dangling beneath her.

The woman shut her eyes tightly. “I told you to leave! Why can’t you leave me be? I’m a nobody! You don’t even know me!”

“We don’t have to know you to care, miss,” Leonardo said quietly. “We care about all citizens. Well, most of them. And you don’t seem like one of the bad ones.”

Elizabeth opened her eyes and looked up at her two… Rescuers? Unwelcomed heroes? “You- You- What-”

“I thought you said to stay in the shadows, Leonardo,” Donatello whisper-shouted across the rooftop, keeping as far from them as possible. He didn’t want to think about what was going through Mikey’s head right then. It couldn’t be good.

“You- What-” Elizabeth stammered as the two mutant turtles pulled her from the rooftop’s edge. They sat her down gently against the pavement, away from the edge. The brothers exchanged glances with one another, only barely looking back to the two that completed the foursome. It was silently agreed that this was necessary.

“Who are you?” Elizabeth finally said, closing her eyes tightly just to open them again.

“Now, that’s a loaded question,” Raphael said with a small snicker as his brother elbowed him. He held nothing back. “ _Hey!_ ”

“Right now, we are just strangers that care about your safety,” Leonardo told her, finally able to look this woman in the eyes. They were blue, like his, and almost a perfect match. “Do you think you’ll be okay?”

Elizabeth sucked in another breath. “I don’t know- Hey! What do you think you’re doing?”

It took less than a second for Raph to fling the woman over his shoulder like a ragdoll. He shrugged sheepishly at his elder brother, who glared daggers. “Looks like we’re getting Thai for five tonight, boys.”

“Hey! This is kidnapping!”

“What are your other options? We send you to a mental institution? I don’t think so,” Donatello scoffed as he stepped out from the shadows. “Mental health facilities are not at all satisfactory in this country.”

“Think of this as ‘suicide watch’, miss. It’s for your own good,” Leonardo said. “We’re not gonna hurt ya. We want to help.”

For the first time that night, Elizabeth seemed to give in. Her body lost its tension against the strange being holding her. She gave up. What else could really go wrong now? Suicide watch, huh?

“I’ll tell the Master we’re having company,” Donatello told his brothers.

Master? Who were these ‘rescuers’, anyway?


	2. Kidnappers?

It was always the same routine. Find somebody (or somebodies) causing trouble, get there as soon as possible, and kick ass. He knew his role- he knew he could rely on his brothers to know what to do as well. They worked almost seamlessly as a team every night. As soon as the shadows began to fall, they were there to protect the city.

This was nowhere near as easy.

“You alright there, miss?”

“I’m pretty sure this is pretty illegal. Leonardo.”

Very few humans had ventured down to the turtles’ lair. It wasn’t the most inviting place. All sewer lines and tunnels leading to the lair stunk like nobody’s business. It was no surprise nobody ever accidentally made their way down.

It didn’t take long for Elizabeth to begin her complaints about the smell. Longer than he expected, but still. Even when she asked where they were going, why the smell was so strong, nobody gave her a straight answer. It was a good thing she had a blindfold. The only good smell she could find was the Thai food.

Leonardo wasn’t sure why she didn’t seem disgusted at the sight of them. The few humans that had witnessed them had varied reactions- even April was in a state of shock the first time they met face to face. What could she be thinking about them now?

She didn’t even ask what they were. She had seen them.

“Ah, home sweet lair!” Mikey sighed with glee as he hopped down from the rather large ‘pipe’ like entryway. “Welcome to our crib, Elizabeth!”

The woman took in a deep breath as Raph set her down on the ground. She was thankful he didn’t put her on her feet, she wasn’t sure she’d be able to stand right. “Was the blindfold really necessary?”

The orange-masked turtle snickered. “Of course it was.”

“I guess the smell isn’t so bad now- wait, did we just go through the sewers? Why is it so cold down here?”

“Guys, I think she figured it out.”

“Can it, Mikey.” 

Elizabeth could hear a quick ‘thud’ before someone untied her blindfold. She blinked a few times as her eyes began to adjust to her surroundings. Oh, this would take more than a few seconds to adjust to.

She got to her feet finally, brushing off the thighs of her pants. She did a slow spin, looking the room up and down. She pursed her lips together before she finally turned to the four that had kidnapped her.

Leonardo stood first, his arms placed tightly around his back. She noticed he wasn’t the tallest of them all, but he definitely wasn’t short. This one stood at least a foot above her, and was a wall of green muscle.

Green muscle?

She assumed the next was Raph, he had been referred to a few times on the way there. He’s the one that carried her. He was definitely the biggest, both height and muscle wise. She made a mental note to make nice with that one. Though, she thought, if they had meant to hurt her, they would have done it by now. They wouldn’t have taken her.

She wasn’t going to use the term ‘rescued’ just yet.

The third one was adorned with a purple mask and- were those tortoise-shell glasses?

About that last one.

“Well, whaddya think?” The green thing with an orange mask asked. He was practically jumping up and down. “You’re here!”

Elizabeth frowned, not saying a word. This was definitely a lot to take in. Were those _shells_ on their backs?

“My bad, my bad! Allow me to introduce ourselves!” the orange-masked green one said quickly as he waved his arms in the air, as if to erase everything up till now. “I’m Michelangelo, the best one of the group. That’s Donatello, the brains. Raphael, the muscle, and Leonardo.”

She slowly turned towards Leonardo. “Huh, you don’t get a description. What’s that about?” It was unclear if it was sarcasm or pure curiosity dripping from her voice.

The blue-masked turtle smirked at her. “Don’t need one, miss.”

She waved a hand mindlessly through the air. “Elizabeth is fine. I guess. You guys live in the sewers?”

“How’d you guess?” Raphael had never given a better deadpan look in his life.

“I mean, it makes sense. Not sure how you could afford an apartment in the Big Apple in this economy,” she shot back, though it was clear this was no longer sarcasm. It wasn’t anger, irritation- what was it. “Now. Do you guys regularly kidnap women on rooftops or was this a one-time thing? I’m sure there are more out there.”

Leonardo shook his head. “Not that we’ve seen.”

“I guess I’ll have to cross ‘mutant turtle ninjas’ off of my list of things I don’t think are real,” she said slowly, thoughtfully, looking towards the ceiling. “That’s really high up.”

Not as high up as I had been earlier, she noted.

“What made you try to do it?”

She turned back to them, not sure which one had spoken. “What?”

“Stand on the edge. What made you do it?”

“It’s… It’s complicated, I guess,” she said quietly. “Probably not something you’d be interested in hearing about.”

The blue-masked turtle (Leonardo?) took a small step forward. “We swore to ourselves and our allies to protect this city at all costs. That includes you.”

“I’m not sure my life story up until now is something you can mentally prepare for.” Elizabeth forced a laugh, shaking her head again. She had convinced herself time and time again that it was just another sob story, one more tally that might not even be worthy of being drawn. “I’m gonna be frank here. So, are you guys turtles? Not regular turtles, obviously.”

“Mutant turtles, miss,” Raphael said through a grin. “Unlike any other.”

She tapped on her chin. “Mutant turtles that are about twice my height, made of muscle, that… Fight in favor of the most populated city in the country.”

Michelangelo tipped an imaginary hat to her. “Saving damsels in distress in the shadows.”

“I’m definitely distressed,” she snorted. “I must be dreaming.”

It surprised Leonardo how easy it had been to get this woman to talk to them. She didn’t seem afraid, and she didn’t say why. He wasn’t about to ask.

Sure, she didn’t divulge into her life story with them, but she did agree to play a multiplayer video game with them after a rather awkward dinner of takeout Thai food. Even April didn’t indulge at their requests to game with them. He figured she was just afraid of losing.

He settled on the belief that Elizabeth thought she was dreaming. It was an easier reality to swallow than a human simply accepting that she was napped by mutant ninja turtles. He couldn’t stop from questioning what made him notice her in the first place.

It was a quiet night. The brothers were jumping from the rooftops both for exercise and pleasure. It definitely wasn’t to see who could do it the fastest. And Michelangelo definitely was _not_ the fastest.

_He never bragged, of course._

“How did you get all of this stuff down here? Did you really carry things one by one through the sewers?”

It was amusing how easily she spoke now versus just an hour ago. And while dominating at Super Smash Bros, nonetheless.

“We’ve been living here for as long as we can remember, we’ve had years to collect,” Raphael answered before Leonardo could even open his mouth.

“Collect much more and you’d be considered ‘hoarders’,” she said, grunting as she was taken out by none other than Michelangelo.

She set the controller down in front of her, leaning back against the couch. She felt even smaller sitting against the couch on the floor, but it was her fault. She had declined a space on the actual couch.

“Finally! Thought you’d never die!”

As the words left Michelangelo’s mouth, everybody in the room fell silent.

“ _Oh_. Was that too soon?”

That was putting it lightly. You could slice through the tension in that room with a knife. Or a katana.

“Is there anything to drink in here?” Elizabeth said finally, looking up to the first turtle she could see without straining her neck. She made no comment about what Mikey said.

“What were you thinking you’d want? We have sodas, juices… Not much juice. We have soda that tastes like juice, though,” Leonardo said. He stood up. “Come on, I’ll show you where it is.”

Elizabeth grabbed a chip from the bowl positioned between Michelangelo and Rafael as she followed the oldest brother. He had to be the oldest. Donatello was a close second, but he didn’t seem nearly as confident.

She was certain that all eldest siblings were just dripping with that oldest-sibling, leader, person-in-charge confidence.

It wasn’t nearly as long a walk as she expected to a room that faintly resembled a kitchen. There looked to be a stove of sorts in the corner, something that resembled a deep freezer next to it, and an assortment of tables between those and a refrigerator.

“You guys kind of have it made down here,” she noted as she followed him towards the fridge. It had to be an older model, but there were wires sticking out the back that made her feel like it had been ‘upgraded’ somehow. “Solitary, no neighbors to disturb you, all the fixings to have a good time."

“We make it work for us,” the large mutant turtle told her. “It’s our safe haven. Up top, we’re heroes, but only if we’re not seen. Here, we can be ourselves.”

“I always have to be ‘on’, a facade of myself,” Elizabeth said. “But no matter what I do, it feels like it’s never enough.”

The two stood in silence before Leonardo slowly, oh ever so slowly, opened the fridge. He gestured for her to look inside.

This kind of stock would put any caffeine-addicted young adult to shame.

“Sodas, all flavors, we have cherry, vanilla, orange- I probably wouldn’t touch the orange without Mikey’s permission, he might cry.”

“Wouldn’t want that,” she bobbed her head. “Is there anything… Not carbonated? But also not water.”

“Before you ask, we don’t have any coffee or alcohol. Or milks, not our thing.”

She tilted her head to one side. “Any tea?”

He perked up. “You want some tea? I could brew some. Any requests?”

“Anything but green tea is fine with me,” she shrugged. “I don’t like leaf water that looks like.. Green leaf water."

Leonardo quickly ushered her out of the ‘kitchen’ and back to his brothers, crossing his fingers that they would stray away from the ‘death’ comments. Mikey was going to pay for that later.

He took his time looking through their rather large selection of teas. It was curious that she asked for tea specifically- his brothers barely touched it unless they were sick. They stuck to the bubbly, syrup-filled beverages that he swore would make their teeth rot within the next few years.

White teas, black teas, caffeinated and decaf varieties covered the table. He had decided to lay them all out to really choose. It took a few minutes of pondering before he settled on his favorite. He hoped she liked chamomile.

As the water was brewing, he could feel a new presence in the room. He turned to see his adopted father, and quickly gave him a slight bow. “Sensei.”

Why was he surprised? He was more surprised it took this long of them being home for him to come see them.

“You brought a civilian home,” Splinter said carefully.

He felt his heart drop. “I had to, Dad. She was standing on the edge of The roof- I thought she was going to jump."

Splinter let out a slow breath. “I see. It was a good decision to bring her.”

“I couldn’t just leave her, even if I talked her off, what if she actually did it?” He didn’t want to imagine that. He barely knew her, but the idea of anybody willingly taking their own life wasn’t something he wanted to picture. She didn’t seem like a bad person. She seemed good. She didn’t deserve it.

“Now that she is here, what will you do?” his master questioned, flipping the switch off of the kettle as the water began to almost boil over. “I see she has already made herself welcome with your brothers.”

“If Mikey can keep his comments to himself,” he gritted his teeth. A deep breath in, a deep breath out. He poured the hot water into a cup, though now that he thought of it, he wasn’t sure she’d be able to hold that quite comfortably. They weren’t exactly for small human hands. They were large to accommodate for three-fingered beings. 

“Leonardo, what will you do now?”

“Dad, I don’t know what to do. I swore to help the people of this city, but against the bad guys and robbers and thieves- I don’t know what to do. What should I do?” He felt smaller with every word.

He was supposed to be the leader, the turtle with a plan. It was his idea to help her, his idea to bring her to their home. He hated to even think the words ‘suicide watch’, but that was it, in a nutshell. It hurt him to think that people could be such a danger to themselves in the way she was to herself. How many people had they unknowingly passed in the streets with the same intentions? How many people could they have possibly helped before her if they only knew? He saw this one, he knew he had to help her. It was the right thing to do.

Leonardo, for the first time in his life, didn't know what to do.

“Dad, do you think we can help her?”

“If she came this far without a fight, I have no doubt she is able to be helped. Mental illness is a complicated matter. I implore you to help this woman see the light. At this point, she might need someone to show her that life is worth the journey to get here.”

Leonardo, as he always was, was both enlightened and baffled by his father’s words. But if he said that he needed to show this human that life was worth the journey, that show her he shall.

Starting with that chamomile tea. He just hoped he didn’t burn the tea leaves.


	3. Words of Wisdom

Who knew what chamomile tea and a little honey could do to lighten the mood?

It took less than thirty minutes for the first yawn to come about. It was almost morning by then, about the time the four brothers normally got some sleep in the first place. Leo knew that some humans were night-owls, but they were few and far between. This one kept up.

After a silent but passionate discussion, it was Donatello that relinquished control of his bed for the night in favor of the suicidal human. He grumped quietly about how it should be Leo, thinking that it was his idea in the first place, but didn’t say that to his face. He didn’t dare.

Elizabeth was already half asleep when Leonardo led her to Donatello’s room. It was probably the least disturbing one, he figured, since there weren’t disturbing graphics on the wall (Mikey), too many bloody warriors (Raph). The reason he didn’t choose his own bed to give up remained a mystery.

“This is definitely going in the journal when I wake up,” Elizabeth mumbled, climbing up the bedframe. It was actually amusing to watch. She couldn’t have been much taller than five feet, and her legs were definitely not long for her height.

“Napped by mutant turtles? Yeah, I bet. You journal?” Leonardo chuckled quietly. He tried to help her up, but she instead smacked his hand away.

“No, but if I did, this would  _ definitely  _ be a good entry. Maybe I’ll start journaling,” she said through a yawn. She looked down at the bedding with a frown. “You guys really are somethin’.”

Leonardo gave her a quick ‘goodnight’ before he headed back to the living area. None of the others were even close to crashing. It would be a good time to explain the plan.

What little plans he had, anyway.

“Is she living with us now? I didn’t know we could just choose people off the street to come live with us- I would have picked years ago!”

“Mikey, you know April doesn’t think of you like that,” Raph sighed. Leo chuckled, knowing it was yet another time Mikey had to be reminded. “How long is she staying with us?”

Leonardo shrugged, taking his place back on the couch. “Not sure yet. I don’t want to risk her going out and trying something like that again. Thought having her here tonight would be our best bet, and see how it goes from here. She’s not moving in with us, Mikey.”

The orange-embellished turtle pouted.

“I know you want to help her, but what do you think we can do to help? We’re not therapists or psychiatrists, Leo, we’re turtles. Ninja turtles. I’m not sure that fits the bill,” Donatello said as he set his controller down on the table. “We’re way out of our element here.”

He couldn’t deny that his brother was right. They were out of their element. Fighting bad guys was a cinch compared to this. They knew the moves, they were calculated, they worked seamlessly as a team.

This? They’d have to get creative. Losing wasn’t an option. They were this far.

“Master told me that if she was willing enough to come without a fight, there’s something left in her that still wants to live. We can find a way to bring her back to the light somehow.” It was hard to deviate from the very words his father had spoken to him not long ago. There weren’t very many ways to put it otherwise. Bring her back into the light.

Raphael let out a sigh. “She kept talkin’ about how this must be a dream. What if she wakes up and freaks out? She’s in the freaking sewers with four mutant turtles.”

“We just have to bet that she will be okay. I know that none of us asked for this, but it’s our sworn duty to help the citizens of this city. That includes her. We need to find a way to help her.”

“Again, Leo, we’re not therapists. What are we going to do to help her? We don’t even know where to start!” Donatello waved his hands in the air. “We played games with her, we fed her, you gave her tea- what?”

“She’s not like a pet, Donnie,” Leonardo growled.

“Indeed she is not.”

All four brothers turned around to see their sensei walking towards them. At least two of them sighed, likely with relief that maybe he could shed some wisdom on them. That conversation could go round and round for hours at that rate.

“She is a human struggling with her place in the world, a battle against her own thoughts. From what I have witnessed, I believe she needs people in her corner. She needs people that will fight for her, show her the light, and show her that-”

“So she basically needs friends!” Mikey piped in. “That doesn’t seem too hard. We can do that!”

Raph groaned. “We don’t even know her last name. She doesn’t trust us.”

Splinter hummed. “She trusted you enough to talk to you all night. She did not run, she did not scream, did not faint. I might even say that she took the very idea of your existence better than April O’Neil. She trusted the food you gave her. She is even sleeping in a place she does not know. What does that tell you?”

Leonardo kept telling himself that it didn’t mean anything. She just thought this was all a dream anyway. Maybe it was minute to consider these points while they still had no idea what she was really thinking.

When no turtle had an answer, he continued.

“From what was said tonight, I believe her actions were an act of desperation. It is hard to see what can be when everything around you feels dark and you feel there is nowhere to turn. That there might be no light at the end of the tunnel. I know all of you have felt this way. How did you handle it?”

Donatello was the first to answer. “I trusted my brothers to be there for me. I knew they would be, they- you guys supported me, and I knew I could make it.”

“I ate lots of pizza,” Michelangelo said.

“I meditated. A lot,” Leonardo said, making a face at Mikey’s words. Pizza? Was there ever anything else on that guy’s mind?

“I threw myself into training,” Raphael said slowly. “Something I could measure. New personal bests, personal records.”

“All four of you found your own ways to cope with how you were feeling,” Splinter nodded. “Not only did you work to better yourself by yourself, you did so knowing that you had the support of your family.”

“Didn’t she say something about not being close to her family?” Donatello asked, looking back towards Leonardo.

“No dad, something bad about her mom, and… I don’t remember about her sister,” Leo said, scratching his head. He should have paid attention more.

“Something about hotshot accounting,” Mikey added. “The best kind of accounting, if you ask me.”

“You don’t even know what accounting is, stupid,” Raph snickered.

Leo was afraid the bickering that began between Raph and Mikey would never stop. It felt like an eternity before he finally smacked Mikey upside the head.

“Ow!”

“We’re having a conversation here!”

“You are all old enough to decide what is best. I’ve given you the information you need to make a decision on what comes next,” Splinter told them with a small smile. “I have no doubt you will do what is right.”

When the four brothers were left alone, they were left in silence. Not even Michelangelo said a word, which probably almost gave the other three a heart attack. He always had something to say.

_ Maybe he was growing up. _

“So! I’ve decided that she’s living with us now-”

_ Nevermind on that. _

“Dummy, she’s not living with us, she’s just being guarded by us for now,” Leonardo said, giving his youngest brother another wack on the head. “I think I know what we can do now.”

This was his decision. He chose to help this woman. It was his duty. His duty as the leader was to guide his brothers down the right path. With his father’s words in mind, he was almost confident in what he was about to say.

Almost.

“You’re right,” he said. “We’re not therapists. We’re not phsychia-or-whatevers. We’re turtles. But when we see someone in need, we can’t back down just because we’re scared. So here’s the plan.”

It was another hour before the brothers finally made it to bed. For Donatello, the couch. On his way, Leo poked his head into Donnie’s room to make sure everything was alright.

Elizabeth was sound asleep. She had wrapped the blanket around her what looked like many times like a tight burrito, leaving only her head and forearms out. It reminded him of when Michelangelo was little and would only sleep if the blanket covered 98% of him, leaving very few square inches of himself left out.

He held his breath.

She was still breathing.

He smiled silently to himself as he shut the door most of the way, leaving only a crack of space between it and the wall.

The plan would begin soon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mikey: Hey April! So we definitely kidnapped somebody  
> April: What are you talking about?  
> Mikey: Leo says it's for her own good. We even have a plan!  
> Leo: We did not kidnap her  
> Donnie: By definition, we technically did kidnap her-  
> Leo: But for her oWn GoOd  
> Raph: I see the plan is going well


	4. Run-of-the-Mill

Ah, the plan. The plan to help Elizabeth, the plan specifically created and constructed to assist Elizabeth. The Elizabeth Plan.

Splinter was, as usual, the first to wake up.

He loved his sons dearly, but he also loved the quiet he had when he woke up before them. Once at least one was awake, he knew he would be forced to socialize, step into his fatherly role (not that he didn’t love it, but everybody needs a break from time to time), give advice that only a rat father could. Especially right now, he knew that all four of his sons were nervous about their roles. It was warranted.

It was the ripe time of almost noon. He decided it was about time to make his first cup of tea for the day. Tea was always a pleasant beginning.

As the kettle began to head up, he heard a rustling near the doorway. “Leonardo, you’re awake early-” he began to say, but stopped when he saw who it really was.

Elizabeth stood, rubbing her eyes. Her hair was a little bit all over the place, something dark shaded under her eyes. “I’m so sorry, what was your name again?”

“You may call me Splinter, my dear. What are you doing up so early?” he asked warily.

“I don’t usually sleep this late,” the girl said, covering her mouth when she yawned. “I’ll take it that last night wasn’t really a dream.”

Splinter quietly added a little more water and tea leaves to the kettle. “You would be correct. Did you sleep well?”

“For someone that doesn’t like sleeping anywhere but my own bed, I’d say so.” She gave him a small smile. “Thank you.”

“What for?”

“Welcoming me into your home,” Elizabeth said with a shrug. “A stranger, giving me a safe place to sleep.”

“We help those who are in need of help,” he told her, leaning against the makeshift countertop. “You were not in a good place last night. Would you agree?”

Elizabeth nodded silently.

“I won’t pry into your personal health,” he said. “But I’d like you to know that we can be here for you if you want us. My sons aren’t like anybody else. They may be rough around the edges, but they have good hearts. They want to help you just like I do.”

He poured two cups of tea and gestured for them to continue their conversation elsewhere. She followed him down a few more narrow hallways, carefully holding her cup to keep it from spilling. He pushed back a few curtains to reveal a greenhouse of sorts. It was warm, the air was moist, and the room was filled with potted plants, flowers, and what she thought were herbs of sorts.

“It’s amazing,” she said quietly. “I never thought these kinds of things were even possible down here. You _live_ down here. It’s amazing.”

“We made do with what is available to us,” Splinter said with a small smile. “This is all we have ever known.”

“How did you- you know, come to be?” Elizabeth asked.

The question he was waiting for.

“As you probably could have guessed,” he chuckled. “We aren’t your typical rat and turtles. Years ago, we were subjects in an experiment to create a substance that could withstand a harsh environment.” He spared her the nitty gritty details, it was likely too early for that.

“One night, a fire erupted in the lab. We managed to escape, though at the time we were still seen as the ordinary rat and four turtles. As years went by, we grew into what we are. It has been twenty-two long years. I took the role as both father and master of the turtles. It wasn’t easy, but it needed to be done.”

“That’s amazing,” she repeated, a little more enthusiastic this time. “You could write a book about this.”

He laughed, shaking his head. “I’m afraid not. You see, we aren’t accepted by the general population of this city. A select few humans have actually had the pleasure of seeing us for who we are and not what we look like. You are now one of them.”  
Splinter carefully sat his cup of tea down on a bare crate. He picked up a watering can and began to get to work.

“Need any help?”

“I enjoy doing this myself, but the company is appreciated. If you have any more questions, I’m sure my sons would be happy to explain their life stories to you.”

Elizabeth searched her mind for their names. It had been so late, the events of the night prior were blurry. She remembered their faces. Each wore a different colored mask. They were all so different, so unique- what were their names?

“Dad, I can’t find-” A voice rang through the greenhouse-room. She instantly recognized it, the first voice she heard. The first one she remembered.

Elizabeth turned to see who she instantly recognized as Leonardo, Leo. It had just dawned on her that their names were in reference to Renaissance painters. She’d have to ask about that later.

The turtle stopped. “Oh. There you are.”

She waved awkwardly. “Here I am.” She gave him a small smile.

Yeah, okay. These guys were freakishly huge turtles. Who were extremely muscular, bore weapons draped over their shells and at their sides. Sure. But they were her rescuers. She was comfortable with using that word now.

Leonardo noticeably relaxed. “You’re up early.”

“It’s almost noon. I usually wake up before eight,” she said. “...Thank you.”

He tilted his head. “What?”

“Thank you. For last night. I know it was… Not the greatest way to meet you guys, or for you to meet me.” Her gaze shifted down to her feet. “I just have some… Issues. That I need to work through.”

Leonardo turned to his father, who only nodded before going back to watering his plants. He wondered what all was said before he got there.

This wasn’t technically part of the plan, but this was a good start nonetheless.

“The other’s won’t be up for a while still. I’m heading to the dojo for my morning meditations.”

“You even have a dojo?” She couldn’t hide the surprise in her voice if she tried. Mutant turtles that meditate. That live in the sewers, that drink tea (at least one of them), that like Thai food, video games, and who knows what else.

Leonardo held back a chuckle as he gestured back towards the doorway. “You can join me, if you’d like.”

Elizabeth quickly shook her head. “I don’t even know how to meditate.”

“We all start somewhere. Are you coming?”

It was hard to say no.

Leonardo positioned her at the opposite end of the dojo as him. He gave her a few quick pointers to get her started before he sat down and shut his eyes.

Elizabeth watched him for a moment before she did the same. His words echoed in her head, so few instructions but so many at the same time.

Count your breaths.

In one, out two, all the way to ten and start again.

Let your mind feel what it needs to feel. Don’t let it engulf you, but allow yourself to feel.

When your mind wanders too far, start at one again. In. Out.

To think that she thought she was good at taking instruction.

_In, one._

_Two, out._

As she counted up, she could feel a metaphorical weight lift from her shoulders. She could hear Leonardo’s breathing in the corner, though it was soft. She felt his presence.

_Shit, did I leave the tea in the greenhouse?_

Back to one. Out, two.

Elizabeth could feel the darkness in her mind. She allowed herself to feel it, welcoming it as a friend as opposed to an intruder. It was part of her, her own way of feeling.

_Out, six._

Meditation wasn’t something she thought of to do. Her life was too busy for something like that, she thought. Those minutes could be better spent elsewhere.

Maybe it was time to slow down.

_Alright, back to one now._

Time became an afterthought. When she finally opened her eyes, Leonardo was beginning to stand. He reached his arms up, then held them behind his back in a stretch. She swore she could hear some joints popping.

Elizabeth slowly got to her feet, reaching her arms up towards the ceiling. Where she could see Leo could easily touch the ceiling, her arms were feet away from it. At least she knew she would never bump her head here.

Not that that was a general worry of hers. Not many walls were only five-foot something.

“That was nice,” she said, breaking the silence. “Do you do this every morning?” She recalled when he had said ‘morning meditations’.

“Every morning when I wake up. It helps clear my head and get me ready for the day,” Leonardo told her with a nod. “I’ll do it before nightfall if I need to as well.”

“A healthy habit,” she mused. “The others don’t join you?”

Leonardo gave her a shrug in response. “Sometimes. They’d prefer the extra sleep. Honestly, they could do with a little more meditation.”

“I definitely feel more ready for the day. Or breakfast at least.” As if on cue, her stomach began to growl.

He laughed. “Come on, let’s get you some breakfast.

“How long did we go, anyway?”

“Thirty minutes. You beat Mikey’s record.”

 _A small feat_ , she told herself. Mikey did not seem like one to keep still for that long.

Elizabeth should have referred to their meal as ‘lunch’, especially considering the time. She thought this as they passed through another corridor, one that was a little smellier than the rest. She did applaud them for keeping the place smelling less like sewer than it actually was. Did turtles have a sense of smell?

“So, you meditate. Do your brothers have any habits or hobbies?”

“Raphael does the most physical training,” Leo said, pointing to a door at the end of the hallway. “Weight training, boxing, you name it. Donnie keeps to his science-y stuff. He’s good with technology and chemistry, that pretty much covers most of his free time. Mikey… He has trouble focusing on one thing.”

“Shocking.”

He laughed. “He’s gotten better, more tolerable to live with. He’s not allowed near Donnie’s things anymore, though.”

Elizabeth stopped walking and crossed her arms over her chest. “Now you have to tell me this story.”

Leo was amazed. She had a completely different presence to her now than the night before. She was sarcastic, she was witty. He could tell she chose her words carefully, but when she looked at him, it wasn’t with the usual disgust or fear. It was with amazement, intrigue.

Strange human.

The tale began of how Mikey had accidentally caused a bad chemical reaction in Donatello’s lab area. It wasn’t a small sort of reaction- in fact, it ended up ruining most of Donnie’s equipment. He refused to speak to him for days as he tried to both fix and replace what had been lost. Elizabeth made a mental note to ask how they got equipment like that in the first place.

By the time Leo had no more to say, they were settled at the table in the kitchen with some food. He had made up a couple dozen sandwiches with various meats and toppings, all with cheese. When he set the platters down at the table, he paused. “I didn’t ask you what you wanted, did I?”

“I’m not that picky,” she assured him. “You probably need to explain what all these are, though.”

She picked a simple turkey sandwich after an entire speech ensued about each sandwich. They liked variety. As she took a bite, she smirked. “I had no idea turtles ate meat. Good to know.”

“Not sure if you’ve picked up on this yet, but we’re not your run-of-the-mill turtles.”

Oh, she definitely had.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The turtles are reluctant for Elizabeth to go home, but little do they know they have more connections with her than they realized.

“Let me get this straight. You guys were the ones who really saved the city? Twice?”

The commotion had made national news headlines for weeks years ago. The most recent occurrence was five years ago, way before Elizabeth had made her way to the city.

It was the sort of thing that led to many online conspiracy theories, but none of them had any solid evidence. The media led people to believe it was a man named Vernon Fenwick, who had subsequently called himself ‘the Falcon’.

How obnoxious.

“We knew we wouldn’t be accepted by the general public, and he just so happened to be working with us- it made sense,” Leonardo shrugged.

“People are so gullible,” she snorted. She shook her head. “Even I had a feeling he couldn’t have taken that thing down without help. I mean, one man? Unless it was dumb luck. I’m still trying to understand why someone wants to take over a city. A single city. What, turn it into his kingdom? He knows there are bigger and better cities out there, right?”

“Bigger and better? Oh, man! We have been so busy saving this city, we haven’t been able to finish our hip-hop Christmas album!” Mikey couldn’t have sounded more pitiful.

Elizabeth laughed. “I’d love to hear you guys try to rap Silent Night. Ninjas and all.”

Right as Michelangelo opened his mouth to give her a proper demonstration, he was pushed over by his red-banded brother.

“Someone’s a party pooper.”

“I just spared your eardrums,” Raph said, looking quite pleased with himself.

“What a sweetheart,” Elizabeth said through a snort. These guys were definitely brothers, the way they treated each other.

“Speaking of sweethearts,” Mikey grinned. “What are you going to do now? Now that you know us and all. You gonna stay here for good?”

“Mikey-” Raph growled.

Elizabeth just shook her head. “I have an apartment in Brooklyn I should probably get back to at some point. And a job.”

“Do you think you’re ready to get back to all that?” Leonardo asked her quietly. He still wasn’t sure what pushed you so far towards the edge- depression, that was pretty clear. Was there a more specific reason?

She shrugged again. “Have to sooner or later. It comes and goes. Good days, bad days, you know?” She looked around the room with a small smile. “Plus, if I go back to… All that, and I feel like it’s all going down the drain again- well, you guys make a mean cup of tea.”

The brothers looked between each other. It was obvious they all felt some type of way to hear that she was leaving. They had known this woman for less than twenty-four hours, and yet the thought of her leaving them left them feeling empty. She was one more human that accepted them for who they were. She didn’t run, she didn’t scream, she just accepted it.

“I took the liberty of adding our numbers to your phone,” Donatello said finally. “In case you ever need us for any reason.”

“Need a cup of tea, an escape, a friend-”

“-Boyfriend-” Mikey cut in.

Raph wasted no time knocking him over completely this time.

“I don’t think I could handle you, Michelangelo,” Elizabeth gave him a small smile. “You remind me of me when I was younger.”

Mikey got to his feet, dusting off his thighs. “How old are you again?”

She grinned. “Twenty-one, legal drinking age.”

He shook his head in confusion. “We’re older than you.”

“I really can’t thank you guys enough for this,” Elizabeth said, ignoring Mikey’s statement. “Especially you two.” She looked between Raphael and Leonardo. “Especially you two. And the Thai food of course.”

~

It felt like it had been an eternity since she left. It was almost dusk, it had really only been hours. Donatello gave her an extremely detailed map of the sewers, including the streets they followed, in case she wanted to come down by herself. They all figured she’d just ask for an escort, but in case she didn’t feel like it.

“And as soon as she comes into our lives, she leaves,” Michelangelo said through a dramatic sigh. “Do you think she’ll be okay?”

“She’ll be alright,” Donatello said. “I added multiple suicide hotlines and therapists to her phone when I added us.”

“She can’t just stay here forever,” Raphael grunted. “She lives up top, she belongs up there. April and Casey don’t live their lives down here with us, do they? No, they live up top with the other humans.”

Leonardo stayed quiet. They were right- she belonged up there with the other humans. She had a job, an apartment, a life- they were just four turtles that lived in the shadows. They saved her from a mistake she couldn’t go back from. What she did now was up to her.

“Maybe we should check on her tonight!” Mikey said, disrupting Leonardo from his thoughts. “Don, you got her address, right?”

“You think I’d let her leave without knowing where to find her? Do you even know me?” Donatello let out a ‘pfft’. “I have her address, her workplace, her social media profiles.”

“Isn’t that going a little too far?” Leonardo said.

“It’s all for her safety!” Mikey argued, even though the question obviously wasn’t pointed towards him.

Leonardo sighed. “Fine. We can check on her tonight.”

He tried to convince himself it was for his brothers’ sake.

“Since you did all that research on her, might as well not put it to waste. Whadoya got, Donnie?” Raph asked as he plopped back down on the couch.

Donnie pushed up his goggles, more for effect than anything. They were quite literally strapped to his head. “According to all of her profiles, she was born in Iowa and moved here a year and a half ago. No listed family members. Says here that she works for herself, doesn’t say what, but I’m seeing a portfolio right here with a bunch of different headshots.”

Mikey made his way over to Donnie’s corner, squinting at the screens. “Maybe she’s a professional photographer. Do you think she could shoot the music video for our Christmas album?”

“I have a feeling it’s more of what’s in the picture that is her job,” Donnie said slowly. “My money’s on makeup or hair.”

“What do you know about that stuff?” Raph questioned.

“Hey, if it was a photography portfolio, you’d definitely see more variety than just heads,” Donnie replied, rolling his eyes. "Common sense, Raph."

“Too bad we don’t need a new hairdresser,” Raph snorted, running his hand over his bald head. “Alopecia right here.”

“We’re _turtles_ , we don’t grow hair in the first place.”

“It was a joke, Don.”

“It wasn’t a very thought-out joke.”

By that point, Leonardo was no longer paying attention to his brothers. He was no judge of skills with hair, but these pictures didn’t look half bad. Maybe he needed to pay attention to pop culture a bit more to understand. Was she dissatisfied with her work?

She hadn’t mentioned a roommate. He figured she lived alone. Leo recalled April saying how expensive it was to have your own apartment in any part of New York. She couldn’t have been that bad at her job to be able to live on her own.

His thoughts were disrupted when he felt his phone buzz.

**Miss me yet? - Elizabeth**

He frowned, looking down at the screen. It had only been hours.

**You guys seriously messed up my sleep schedule, I’m wide awake and it’s almost nine at night. - Elizabeth**

**Oh yeah? Almost time for us to get to work - Leonardo**

**Ah, the night shift. Latest I’ve worked was probably until two. I didn’t want to even think about waking up the next morning. - Elizabeth**

**You work that late? - Leonardo**

**I had no idea this client was going to take me eight hours. We were almost sick of each other by the end of it. - Elizabeth**

Maybe Donnie was right. He had no frame of reference for photography, but that seemed late. Did hair related things take that long?

**I’ll let you get back to work. Maybe you’ll even save another damsel tonight. - Elizabeth**

**Let’s hope I don’t have to - Leonardo**

He wasn’t sure his brothers could handle two humans in twenty-four hours. Mikey would go crazy.

“Leonardo? Earth to Leonardo?”

He bounced back into reality. “What did I miss?”

“Um, our entire conversation?” Mikey said, poking him on the shoulder. “It’s your head that’s in the clouds today.”

He sighed. “What, then?”

“April says she has a lead on the Purple Dragons,” Donnie said, turning towards them. “They’re hitting several spots tonight. We need to get going.”

“Alright, you know the drill,” Leonardo said loudly. “What are we waiting for?”

He didn’t have to ask twice.

~

Meanwhile, Elizabeth was settling back into her apartment. She regretted leaving it in such a mess the night before. It had taken her until now to finally get it straightened up enough to have company.

Not that she was expecting company.

She let out a small sigh as she placed a mug of tepid water in the microwave. She briefly recalled the events that ensued in the past twenty-four hours.

She did not wake up yesterday thinking she was going to get that close. It had taken all of her courage to even stand on that ledge. Heights were not her friend, ever since she was a child. Maybe it wasn’t the fear of heights so much as it was the fear of falling.

It didn’t make sense that it was her chosen method.

She shook her head quickly. No, those were not the kind of thoughts she needed. Not this soon.

Truth be told, it was hard to live in a city such as New York. It was so easy to get carried away with the hustle and bustle the city was known for. Even on her daily walk to the shop, she felt like a tiny speck in the big picture. Nobody gave her a smile, nobody even looked at her. It wasn’t what she was used to.

Hell, back in the Midwest, people smiled at strangers as they passed them on the road. They waved to people driving tractors, and were even pleasant if one was going ten miles per hour. But here?

If you so much as stopped on the sidewalk, you were given death glares and knew people wished you didn’t exist in that moment.

Maybe she wasn’t meant to stay here.

It was almost every hairstylist’s dream. If you could make it in New York, you really made it. It was a cherry on top if you ended up catering to hair shows, took on a sponsorship for various brands. If you made it in New York, you could even create your own line of color and hair products.

Two and a half years after gaining her license in hairdressing, it just wasn’t what she expected. The hair was great, that wasn’t the problem. The environment drained her. She wasn’t sure if it was worth the heartache.

But those four brothers…

“Maybe I should check in on them,” she told herself.

The microwave began to beep. She reached in to pull the hopefully hot water-filled mug and gasped when the ceramic burnt at her skin. No, she’d give that a minute to cool off, actually.

She glanced over at her phone, it was dangerously close to falling off the edge of the couch. Elizabeth made her way over and unlocked it with her fingerprint. As she did so, she quietly wondered how Donatello managed to get into it in the first place.

In fact, their four names were now listed as her emergency contact numbers. They were even color coded, not that she needed a reminder on who was who.

She decided to text Leo. Less edgy than Raphael, she figured.

**Miss me yet? - Elizabeth**

After thinking for another second, she sent another text. Hopefully they weren’t weird about double-texting.

**You guys seriously messed up my sleep schedule, I’m wide awake and it’s almost nine at night. - Elizabeth**

It wasn’t completely true, she didn’t typically go to bed until midnight or so. There was no harm in friendly banter, right?

She set her phone back down, on the counter this time, and went to check on her mug of hopefully no longer boiling hot water. Before her fingers even touched it, it dinged.

**Oh yeah? Almost time for us to get to work - Leonardo**

She looked at the message for a while, her mug of tea leaf-less water all but forgotten.

**Ah, the night shift. Latest I’ve worked was probably until two. I didn’t want to even think about waking up the next morning. - Elizabeth**

**You work that late? - Leonardo**

_Did I ever tell them what I did for a living?_

Not that it would really matter to them. They obviously didn’t need a beautician.

The hair thing, she was definitely referring to the hair thing. Turtles didn’t have hair. Not that she saw, anyway-

Elizabeth, I swear, they’re fuckin’ turtles. Of course they don’t have hair anywhere.

**I had no idea this client was going to take me eight hours. We were almost sick of each other by the end of it. - Elizabeth**

She remembered that night well. It was actually one of her first clients that she ever got since moving to the Big Apple. And boy, was this girl loyal. She bought product every time, tipped well, even consulted for possible wigs. Elizabeth wasn’t sure why she would want wigs, she had beautiful hair, but she wasn’t about to judge. That was money.

Plus, she worked for some TV station local to New York. This client was a dream client.

As soon as she sent the message, she groaned. He probably didn’t even care to hear about that kind of stuff. He was probably busy anyway. You know, saving the city.

**I’ll let you get back to work. Maybe you’ll even save another damsel tonight. - Elizabeth**

She had to admit, knowing she was the first person they’d saved in such a way made her feel special. Sure, it was the worst possible circumstance, but… In her mind, it was almost like fate. They were different, but they accepted her into their home so easily. They knew she needed help and didn’t hesitate to try their best. They gave her a safe space to sleep, away from her own world. It gave her time to clear her head. Maybe the meditating had something to do with it.

**Let’s hope I don’t have to - Leonardo**

For some reason, the last message didn’t hit quite right with her. It suddenly drew her back.

_Just make some tea, Elizabeth. Light some candles. Deep breaths._

The last thing she wanted was to be a burden to these four new beings in her life she’d love to consider her first real friends in the city. She crossed her fingers that he didn’t mean his words the way she took them.

Candles lit, tea freshly brewed (and with a chunk of ice for good measure), Elizabeth settled down on the couch with an oversized blanket and decided to watch something on TV. That’d clear her mind.

“April’s hair does look so good,” she mumbled to herself with a smile, the first thing on TV was the nightly news. “Good job, me.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mikey: April April!  
> April: What now?  
> Mikey: My girlfriend? Yeah, she does hair.  
> Donnie: She is not your girlfriend, and you have no reason to specifically date someone who does hair when you don't even have-  
> Elizabeth: Has anybody seen my orange wig? It's missing


	6. A New Day

“Do you think she heard us come in?”

“For a ninja, you are really no good at the whole ‘silent’ part.”

“I’m just _asking_ , did you think-”

Elizabeth shot up, her eyes opening. _“Holy fuck-”_

It was still mostly dark, save for the small wave of light coming through the sole window in the apartment. “What the- how did you get in here?”

She was less angry than she thought she should be, the four brothers sneaking into her apartment (which they somehow knew the location of, she didn’t remember telling them) at some ungodly hour at night. Or was it morning? Where was that line drawn, anyway?

“You think we can just walk in the front door?” Raphael said through a snort.

She reached over to turn the lamp on next to her. Looking around, these turtles took up most of her living room. Those shells were huge. Like chunky backpacks you could never take off.

“I have so many questions,” she mumbled. “Not that you guys aren’t welcome here or anything, you welcomed me into _your_ home, but like… _Boundaries?_ Guys?”

“We just wanted to check in, Mikey here wanted to say hello,” Leonardo said, pushing his youngest brother forward.

“What’s up, gorgeous?” Mikey said through a grin, shooting her some finger guns. “Sorry we woke you. Forgot you’re not… Donnie, what’s the word?”

“Nocturnal, not that we’re supposed to be that either,” his brother said.

Elizabeth pulled her blanket back up to her as she sat up, humming. “I guess I’m up now.”

Four hours and about fifteen cheese omlettes later, Elizabeth found herself once again alone in her apartment. Man, those turtles could sure eat.

She really didn’t remember much of the conversations that were had. It was actually kind of nice in a way. They felt comfortable enough with her to just pop into her home without her really knowing how they knew where she lived. She didn’t remember telling them that little detail.

Maybe this was her life now.

_Not that she was complaining._

With an iced coffee in one hand and her phone in the other, Elizabeth flipped through her apps to check her work schedule for the day. She smiled when she saw her favorite client taking up a majority of her day.

“April! Saw you on TV last night.”

“Hey, Elizabeth!” April made her way through the salon and into Elizabeth’s chair. “Yeah, it was a late night last night. Quite a bit of activity if you know what I mean.”

“Never a quiet night in New York,” she replied, draping a cape over her. “Your hair still looks new. What are we thinking today?”

After a quick consultation, Elizabeth’s day had officially begun. It never really felt like work. This was where she was in her happy place, where nothing else really mattered. It was just her and her client, making art.

It was typical for them to make small talk, weather and recent happenings in their lives, but April tended to keep most of her personal life to herself. Elizabeth didn’t judge her for that- she knew that April had enough of her life out there as a news reporter as it was. She did like to talk about her boyfriend, now fiance, Casey.

Elizabeth recalled a time where she spoke about a man named Vernon Fenwick, a man who used to be a cameraman for the same news team. The same Fenwick that took all the credit for saving the city of New York twice.

She wondered if April knew anything about that.

 _No,_ she told herself. _She probably doesn’t. And even if she does, she would never tell me._

During the last few minutes of April’s processing time, Elizabeth snuck into the back room to send a quick message to the boys. For once, she actually had people to text while at work. Or at all. It was a nice feeling

**Hey, guys, thanks for stopping by this morning. I’m not sure how you knew where I live, but you guys are welcome anytime. Maybe let me know the next time you’re coming? Xx - Elizabeth**

**N prob Angelcakes! We’ll let u kno - Michelangelo**

**We just wanted to make sure you were okay, it was kind of a spontaneous decision to actually come in. Sorry we scared you - Donatello**

**Just a little heads up would be much appreciated - Elizabeth**

For a reason she couldn’t put her finger on, she was disappointed Leonardo didn’t say anything. Not that she didn’t like Michelangelo or Donatello, she liked them a lot. But both Leonardo and Raphael didn’t say anything.

They’re probably busy, she told herself. Back to work.

Forty-five minutes later, Elizabeth grinned as she spun April around to a mirror as the final reveal.

“Elizabeth, you’ve done it again,” April said, running her fingers through her hair. “You have no idea how many of your cards I’ve handed out in the past few months. Your books must be full.”

“Thanks to you,” she nodded. “I couldn’t ask for a better client. I have no idea where I’d be without you.”

April scoffed. “Oh, stop it. You’d be doing amazing even if you didn’t have me.”

“You gave me a jump start here in the Apple, can’t deny it.”

Doing April’s hair was always the highlight of her day. It was easy, she was easy to talk to. It was hard for Elizabeth to keep that client/stylist relationship just that with her. They were fairly close in age, Elizabeth being only a few years younger than April. Elizabeth would like to think they ran in the same circles as each other.

Or, they would if she even ran in a circle.

As Elizabeth was checking April out at the front desk, April slid what looked like a postcard across the counter.

Elizabeth frowned. “What’s this?”

“Open it, will you?” April said, flipping her hair behind her shoulder.

She set her pen down and sliced the envelope open.

“Oh! A save the date!” Elizabeth stared down at the card in front of her.

“You’re invited, of course!” April beamed at her. “And a plus one. It’s not for another year, but I thought I’d give you a heads up. I’m hoping you’ll be able to do my hair and makeup, too, but no pressure.”

“I’ll block off the entire weekend, no doubt about that,” Elizabeth stated. “Do you have a registry already?”

Elizabeth and April could have spent hours discussing wedding colors, themes, the stress of writing wedding vows (not that Elizabeth had experience in that, but she figured it wasn’t easy). It took Elizabeth by surprise when she saw her next client walk in the door and wave at her.

She checked April out quickly, giving her a last smile. “I’ll see you in twelve weeks then. Have fun wedding planning!”

“Actually, do you want to go out for drinks tonight? Or tomorrow, whatever works for you.”

“Drinks?”

Elizabeth wasn’t used to people so nonchalantly asking her to do things outside of work. It took her by surprise- she went to work, she went home. Grocery shopping was in there sometimes, maybe going to a movie solo, grabbing takeout. Grabbing drinks with a client?

A friend?

“I’d love to,” she said finally. “I’ll text you when I’m off, okay?”

Now she only hoped the rest of her day went by fast. For once, she was looking forward to something other than work. She was going out for drinks with a friend.

Two clients and three iced coffees later, Elizabeth finally checked her phone as her final client of the day sat at the shampoo bowl.

**Sorry I didn’t message back earlier, I was meditating. How is your day going? - Leonardo**

She felt her heart skip a beat. He wasn’t ignoring her messages after all.

**Amazing actually! I got invited to a wedding for next year and drinks after work. It seems things are looking up in my world - Elizabeth**

**That’s too bad, I was hoping you could come to the lair for food and a movie tonight. Donnie found a taping of the new Avengers movie - Leonardo**

**The new one? Didn’t that come out a week ago in theaters? - Elizabeth**

**You’d be correct - Leonardo**

**That sounds illegal - Elizabeth**

**So are a lot of things we do. Like living in the sewers without paying taxes - Leonardo**

**Fair point. I’ll try to stop by after drinks, don’t want to miss that prime showing - Elizabeth**

Elizabeth let out a breath and smiled. Was this really her life now? Work, drinks with a friend, then a private movie showing with four new friends?

_She was definitely not complaining about that._


End file.
